Celebrate DW’s 60th birthday with words and pictures

I would like to celebrate DW’s 60th birthday with words and pictures. There is a long love story between me and DW and a special, devoted relationship. DW is my best friend, a loyal companion in both life and death. DW is a friend that is always there for me when I am in need, a friend that shares life’s ups and downs with me.

DW is like a spouse whom I have been in a close relationship with for over 20 years. I still remember the first time I discovered DW and I consider it to be one of the happiest moments of my life.

DW is also a loyal friend to my family. The story of DW and my family began with my grandfather who is now 84 years old. He started to listen to DW more than 50 years ago, when he was 25. At the time he was a farmer and Algeria was still a French colony. My grandfather and his colleagues listened to DW on an old Grundig radio that they powered with a car battery. At the time there was no electricity in our small village.

My grandfather still remembers the reports he heard in 1961 when it was announced that the construction of the Berlin Wall had begun in East Berlin.

When Algeria became an independent state in 1962, my grandfather travelled to France to work there. He worked on construction sites in the city of Mulhouse. He worked hard and managed to afford a tiny, new radio with the little money he earned with which he would listen to DW. He once told me that DW is the window to Germany and the world.

Ever since those days DW has been the only source of detailed and objective information for my grandfather.

In 1977 he returned to Algeria. He still considered DW to be the best radio broadcaster in the world and despite his old age and poor health, he continued to listen to DW. For my grandfather DW’s programming was always up-to-date, objective and precise.

In 1989 my grandfather heard about the fall of the Berlin Wall on DW. For him DW was like a lexicon on Germany. He once said that thanks to DW, he was always connected to the world around him.

He always used to say to me, “come here dear grandchild, it’s time to listen to DW, it’s time to visit Germany.”

Now if someone were to ask me, “can you imagine your life without DW?”, I would say without a doubt that life for me, like for my grandfather, would be impossible without DW. It is like the oxygen that we need to live.

Sent by: Bezazel from Algeria
Edited by: Kerstin Boljahn